Cultural and Religious Aspects of Tribal Tattoos
... the cheek than their would be thicker line there or a larger space. For the next two days the artist would design a Moko for the face. Then the new Moko would be drawn in charcoal on the face and the tattooing begins. The tattooing process lasts for four to six days. Each day the mother of the person that is getting tattooed sits by the person’s side. Women’s tattooing was a little bit different. Women were confined to having only the chin and lips tattooed. Women having a tattoo meant just as much as men having a Moko. A woman without a tattoo had a hard time finding a husband in the Maori culture. Their was a song that was sung to women that did not want to go through the tattooing process. Through an interview that I had with a Maori tribeswoman named Kat, I learned a lot about what the Maori think about the new tribal tattoos or Neo-tribal tattoos. It seems that all the Neo-tribal tattoos that are seen in society now are an insult to the Maori and other tribes that hold tattoos to be holy. Using designs that are related to those used by the Maori is like stealing their identity. “Pakeha (whites)are distinctly known for not asking, [and] for assuming that how they see the world is [how] others do so also…[They] bastardize our spirituality and culture and claim it as theirs…Non-Maori wearing it as a form of body art are generally considered wannabes, fakes and frauds that show not only a disrespect for our culture, but lie about their own. How can you respect your own family when you wear the family signature of strangers?” . The Samoans of Samoa Another Polynesian people who practiced body modification were the Samoans. All Samoan people were tattooed, with the exception of a few sacred virgins and rulers who had not been tattooed before they were consecrated. Men and woman each had their own tattooing ceremonies and functions for the tattoos. The tattooing in Samoan culture involved men only and it was a right of passage or a becoming of a man process. There is a story about the origin of the Samoan tattoo that has been passed down through the families. The story is as follows: “Taema and Tilafaiga were female Siamese twins who were joined at the spine. When the twins were grown, they decided to travel away from Ta’u, the island of their birth. As they were swimming, the spar of a canoe struck them and severed the join between them. After several adventures on the other islands, the twins reached Fiji where they met two Tatau (tattoo) artists, Tufou and Filelei, who taught them the art of tattooing. They also taught them a song (or a spell according to some sources)to recite when they were tattooing someone. When the twins returned to Samoa, Tilafaiga became a war goddess, while Taema became a tattooist and a teacher of the art that she had learned in Fiji.” Young males began acquiring tattoos between the ages of 12 and 15, before which they were separated into a group of untitled men, the aumaga. O le tatau or tattooing, was presided over by two female deities: Taema and Tilafaiga . It was said that before the siamese twin goddesses swam to Samoa to teach the art of tattooing, they had been told to sing 'Tattoo the women, don't tattoo the men' on the way there, but they got distracted on the way and arrived singing 'Tattoo the men, don’t tattoo the women'. This explains why only males receive tatau and not women. Although all males were tattooed, the tattooing of the son of a chief was an exceptionally elaborate event. It brought the entire community together for a big festival; family gathered in the village, and many outsiders came to share in the festivities. The first night these people who would be entertained with a large feast, a sham fight, wrestling, boxing, and dancing. Then the tattooist would be paid the first part of his fee. The next day the tattooing would begin. In addition to the chief's son, many other youths would be tattooed in order to share the ordeal of the young leader. The process would take days, sometimes many months to complete, depending on the pain tolerance of those being tattooed. When the tattooing was finally completed the O le Lulu'unga-o-le-tatau, or "the sprinkling of the tattooed", was performed. The tattooist, members of the community and family, and the newly tattooed boys took lit torches to the malae, or temple enclosure, and after a series of ritual movements and gestures the torches were all extinguished together. Next, a bottle of water was smashed at the feet of the chief's son and the torches were relit. This was followed by a search for the bottle's cork, which if not found, foreboded the death of one of the newly tattooed youths. The last day all the newly tattooed had the Lulu'u performed over them by the tattooist, who doubled as a sort of priest. He sprinkled water on them "to remove what was considered to be a kind of sacredness attaching to those newly tattooed" in order for them to be accepted back into society as men. Female tattooing was not quite as complicated in regards to function, but was more intricate in its symbolism. Female malu, or tattooing, was different from tatau in both design and placement. While male tatau was asymmetrical and covered much of the flesh, the women's malu was very symmetrical and was sparse on the hands, arms, legs, and above the groin. The malu was named after the essential component of the tattoo: an elongated diamond or lozenge on the indent behind the knee. It was considered shameful to appear in public with out a malu because it was immodest. Gell suggests that the back of the knee was a "secondary crotch" and the malu was representative of the vulva, which suggests it would be considered erotic, but because it was forever impenetrable, it placed her virginity beyond any man's reach. It seemed to display a girl's virginity when she was young, which may have been why it would have been shameful not to wear it, as it would insinuate the girl was not a virginal creature; it also might be a reminder or a tribute to a woman's lost virginity once she was married, and would make her an eternal virgin, never...